Lectures (Video)
- 1. Course introduction
- 2. The nature of persons: dualism vs. physicalism
- 3. Arguments for the existence of the soul, Part I
- 4. Arguments for the existence of the soul, Part II: Introduction to Plato's Phaedo
- 5. Arguments for the existence of the soul, Part III: Free will and near-death experiences
- 6. Arguments for the existence of the soul, Part IV: Plato, Part I
- 7. Plato, Part II: Arguments for the immortality of the soul
- 8. Plato, Part III: Arguments for the immortality of the soul (cont.)
- 9. Plato, Part IV: Arguments for the immortality of the soul (cont.)
- 10. Personal identity, Part I: Identity across space and time and the soul theory
- 11. Personal identity, Part II: The body theory and the personality theory
- 12. Personal identity, Part III: Objections to the personality theory
- 13. Personal identity, Part IV; What matters?
- 14. What matters (cont.); The nature of death, Part I
- 15. The nature of death (cont.); Believing you will die
- 16. Dying alone; The badness of death, Part I
- 17. The badness of death, Part II: The deprivation account
- 18. The badness of death, Part III; Immortality, Part I
- 19. Immortality Part II; The value of life, Part I
- 20. The value of life, Part II; Other bad aspects of death, Part I
- 21. Other bad aspects of death, Part II
- 22. Fear of death
- 23. How to live given the certainty of death
- 24. Suicide, Part I: The rationality of suicide
- 25. Suicide, Part II: Deciding under uncertainty
- 26. Suicide, Part III: The morality of suicide and course conclusion
Death
Course Summary
This course is based on PHIL 176 Death, Spring, 2007 made available by Yale University: Open Yale under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.
This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also, a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined. What does it mean to say that a person has died? What kind of fact is that? And, finally, different attitudes to death are evaluated. Is death an evil? How? Why? Is suicide morally permissible? Is it rational? How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?
Reading Material
1. Plato - Phaedo(Click the button below to see a preview of the book)
2. A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality
John Perry, A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality.
(Click the button below to see a preview of the book)
3. The Death of Ivan Ilych
Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych.
(Click the button below to see a preview of the book)
Course Material
Not available.Other Resources
Not available.Software
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For discussion on this topic, please go to the relevant forum for Death. Click the button below to open the forum page in a new window.
